Cable TV
Hinduja Ventures’ Grant Investrade gets in principle approval for HITS
Updated: 01:00 PM
MUMBAI: Grant Investrade, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hinduja Ventures, has received an in principle approval from the Information & Broadcasting Ministry for launch of head-end in the sky (HITS) services for cable TV operators.
The company received the in principal approval on Wednesday. The company had applied for a HITS licence on 15 November, 2012.
It has to pay a licence fee of Rs 10 crore before it gets the HITS licence, Hinduja Ventures’ Group CEO-Media and IndusInd Media and Communications’ MD & CEO, Tony D’silva, told Indiantelevision.com.
Grant Investrade will also have to seek two more clearances – one from the Network Operation Coordination Centre for the satellite to be used for the HITS services and second from the Wireless Planning and Coordination wing of the Ministry of Communications.
SATELLITE
D’silva said Grant Investrade would need about 10 transponders and would be finalising a deal with a private satellite operator in the next 15-20 days. There is no transponder capacity available on Indian government’s satellites. The satellite ground station will either be located in Mumbai or in New Delhi.
Grant Investrade will need about six months to launch its HITS service with 400 television channels. The company has already shortlisted suppliers for dishes and other equipment. Castle Media is providing it technology solutions and project management services.
Grant Investrade’s entire business plan for HITS has been vetted by consulting firms KPMG and Deloitte.
The company will be targeting cable operators in areas earmarked for digitisation of cable TV services in Phase III and Phase IV.
D’silva says that the HITS business makes sense because of digitisation and pointed out that 50 per cent of US-based Comcast’s cable television services are provided through HITS.
INVESTMENTS
Grant Investrade will be investing another $100 million (about Rs 620 crore) to operationalise the HITS project. Hinduja Ventures had earlier invested $10 million in the technology required for the HITS venture.
The company will start promotional campaigns after the satellite is finalised and other requirements are in place.
Grant Investrade believes there is no other way than HITS to deal with phase III and IV. With HITS, the average cost of delivering data would fall to Rs 8 per customer from Rs 18 per customer through optic fibre.
D’silva had told Indiantelevision.com earlier, “If we are serious about digitisation, the government should have first cleared our HITS project. We are saying the LCOs can own the consumers and can do the packaging. We will help them seed boxes. It is different than JAINHITS. We have three to four different boxes and they get an option to choose.”
JAINHITS is the first company to get HITS licence. JAINHITS provides digitised and encrypted satellite TV signals directly to cable network owners.
Cable TV
Hathway Cable appoints Gurjeev Singh Kapoor as CEO
Leadership change comes as cable TV faces shrinking subscriber base and modest earnings pressure
MUMBAI: Hathway Cable and Datacom has tapped industry veteran Gurjeev Singh Kapoor as chief executive officer, marking a leadership pivot at a time when India’s cable television business is under mounting strain.
Kapoor will take over from Tavinderjit Singh Panesar, who is set to retire in August after a long innings with the company. Panesar, chief executive since 2023, has held multiple leadership roles at Hathway, including his latest stint beginning in 2022.
Kapoor brings more than three decades of experience in media and entertainment. He most recently led distribution at The Walt Disney Company’s Star India business, now part of JioStar. His career spans television distribution and affiliate partnerships, with stints at Sony Pictures Networks India, Discovery Communications and Zee Entertainment.
Panesar, with over three decades in the industry, has worked across strategic planning, distribution and business development in media, broadcasting and manufacturing. His past associations include ESPN Star Sports, Star India, Apollo Tyres and JK Industries.
The transition lands as the cable sector grapples with structural disruption. Traditional operators are losing ground to streaming platforms, while telecom and broadband players tighten the squeeze with bundled offerings.
An EY report estimates India’s pay-TV base could shrink by a further 30 to 40 million households by 2030, taking the total down to 71 to 81 million. The slide follows a loss of nearly 40 million homes between 2018 and 2024, a contraction that has already wiped out more than 37,000 jobs in the local cable operator ecosystem.
Hathway’s numbers reflect the strain. The company reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 93 crore for FY25, down from Rs 99 crore a year earlier. Revenue inched up to Rs 2,040 crore from Rs 1,981 crore. As of December 2025, it had about 4.7 million cable TV subscribers and roughly 1.02 million broadband users.
Kapoor steps in with a familiar brief but a shrinking playbook. In a market where viewers are cutting cords faster than companies can reinvent them, the new chief executive inherits a business fighting to stay plugged in.
